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Wednesday, 23 May 2012

Forty second film review

They Live - Jon Carpenter

I'm a JC fan, but this film is not one of his best. Not sure if the disengaged acting, ropy characterization and lazy plot line are intentional, I suppose they could be, given the film's vision of an anomic consumer society enslaved 'behind its own back' by aliens.And that's the problem with this film: the aliens. Why blame extraterrestrials for inequality, injustice, over consumption, police repression and the like? We do a pretty good job of that by ourselves thank you very much.The film's premise reminds me of this research paper which, among other things, argues that an advanced alien civilization might have the solution for many earthly problems.... you know, world poverty, inequality, sustainability, global warming... stuff like that. Far be it for humans to be able to solve these problems ourselves.Of course, the film could just be an ironic joke, in which case... you certainly got me there.